PM in planning pledge over economy

David Cameron today pledged to get the planning system "off people's backs" and revive the economy by easing restrictions for homes and businesses. Tens of thousands of families will be allowed to extend their properties by up to eight metres without gaining full permission, and rules on shops and offices expanding will be loosened.

David Cameron today pledged to get the planning system "off people's backs" and revive the economy by easing restrictions for homes and businesses.

Tens of thousands of families will be allowed to extend their properties by up to eight metres without gaining full permission, and rules on shops and offices expanding will be loosened.

Obligations for including affordable housing in new developments could also be waived where they are holding projects back.

But Labour insisted the Government was "kidding itself" that the package would shake the country out of its malaise.

Under the changes, full planning permission - required for extensions of more than a few metres from the rear wall of any home - will only now be needed for those beyond six or eight metres, depending on whether it is terraced or detached.

Businesses will be able to expand shops by 100 square metres and industrial units by 200 square metres.

Shops and offices will be allowed to develop up to the boundary of the premises.

Another 16,500 first-time buyers are also to receive help getting on the housing ladder under an extension of the FirstBuy scheme to be announced by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

Would-be homeowners without a deposit are given an equity loan of up to 20 per cent of the purchase price under the scheme.

Ministers have also decided that developers will no longer have to wait five years to apply to change affordable housing requirements if they are making sites "commercially unviable".

However, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg insisted the change would be more than compensated for by extra Government investment to support the building of more affordable homes.

Treasury funding of £300m has been found to help provide up to 15,000 such properties and bring 5,000 empty homes back into use, Downing Street said.

And new legislation will provide Government guarantees of up to £40bn of major infrastructure projects and up to £10 billion of new homes, including a move to guarantee the debt of housing associations and private sector developers.

Mr Clegg said of the change in social housing restrictions: "Instead of having developers sitting for five years on useless land where nothing has happened, no young people are being employed on construction sites, no affordable homes are being built, no new houses are being built for first-time buyers, we are saying 'Let's undo that knot at an earlier stage'.

"Our calculations are that there are some sites where they will be able to proceed without building affordable homes. That is why we are putting up £300m to more than make up for any loss.

"The net effect of all of these proposals, let me be very clear, is more, not less, affordable homes."

The Prime Minister said: "This government means business in delivering plans to help people, build new homes and kick-start the economy.

"We're determined to cut through the bureaucracy that holds us back.

"That starts with getting the planners off our backs.

"Getting behind the businesses that have the ambition to expand.

"And meeting the aspirations of families that want to buy or improve a home."

Mr Cameron said he wanted to help the people "in their thirties living at home with mum and dad desperate for that starter flat or house".

The package of measures would mean an extra 70,000 houses and 140,000 jobs, he insisted.

But he also cautioned that it was a "a tough economic environment" and the Government could not turn "UK plc" around by itself.

"If there was a button you could push in Whitehall that just said 'growth comes', I would have pushed it long ago," he told ITV's Daybreak programme.

"There isn't. What the Government can do is set the conditions for growth, provide that background of low interest rates, of low taxation which we've done with companies, of a steady and sensible Government doing its bit.

"Then you'll find that households will want to come forward and invest, and businesses will want to come forward and invest. That's how it has to work."

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves said: "With our economy in a double-dip recession and a serious housing crisis, the Government are kidding themselves if they think these announcements are up to the scale of the challenge.

"We need to get Britain building again, but the Government has slashed the housing budget and the number of affordable homes being built is down by 68%. And they have failed to deliver many of the infrastructure projects they announced last year.

"If ministers really want to help homeowners and small firms, why don't they listen to our idea to cut VAT to 5 per cent on home improvements, repairs and maintenance?

"And why do they refuse to repeat the bank bonus tax to fund the building of 25,000 affordable homes and 100,000 jobs for young people?"